Neural signatures of predictive language processing in parkinson’s disease with and without mild cognitive impairment

This study was funded by grants from the Fundació la Marató de TV3 2014/U/477 and 20142910, and by financial support from the Center for Biomedical Research and Neurodegenerative Resources (CIBERNED). PLC was funded with a pre-doctoral grant FPU15/05554 (FPU "Ayudas para la Formación de Profesorado Universitario") of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. JP was funded by PERIS (expedient number: SLT008/18/00088) of Generalitat de Catalunya. JK and HB-K were funded by FIS PI18/01717. HB -K was funded by Río Hortega CM17/00209 of Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (Spain). JM was funded by Río Hortega CM15/00071 of Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (Spain). None of these funding sources had any involvement in the conduct of the research or the preparation of the article.Cognitive deficits are common in Parkinson’s disease (PD), with some PD patients meeting criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). An unaddressed question is whether linguistic prediction is preserved in PD. This ability is nowadays deemed crucial in achieving fast and efficient comprehension, and it may be negatively impacted by cognitive deterioration. To fill this gap of knowledge, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate mechanisms of linguistic prediction in a sample of PD patients (on dopamine compensation) with and without MCI. To this end, participants read sentence contexts that were predictive or not about a sentence-final word. The final word appeared after 1 second, matching or mismatching the prediction. The introduction of the interval allowed to capture neural responses both before and after sentence-final words, reflecting semantic anticipation and processing. PD patients with normal cognition (N = 58) showed ERP responses comparable to those of matched controls. Specifically, in predictive contexts, a slow negative potential developed prior to sentence-final words, reflecting semantic anticipation. Later, expected words elicited reduced N400 responses (compared to unexpected words), indicating facilitated semantic processing. Besides, PD patients with MCI (N = 20) showed a prolongation of the N400 congruency effect (compared to matched PD patients without MCI), indicating that further cognitive decline impacts semantic processing. Finally, lower verbal fluency scores correlated with prolonged N400 congruency effects and with reduced pre-word differences in all PD patients (N = 78). This relevantly points to a role of deficits in temporal-dependent mechanisms in PD, besides prototypical frontal dysfunction, in altered semantic anticipation and semantic processing during sentence comprehension.Fundació la Marató de TV3 2014/U/477 and 20142910Center for Biomedical Research and Neurodegenerative Resources (CIBERNED)FPU15/05554 (FPU "Ayudas para la Formación de Profesorado Universitario") of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and SportPERIS (expedient number: SLT008/18/00088) of Generalitat de CatalunyaRío Hortega CM17/00209 of Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (Spain)FIS PI18/01717. HB -KRío Hortega CM15/00071 of Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (Spain

Alpha power decreases associated with prediction in written and spoken sentence comprehension

Alpha and beta power decreases have been associated with prediction in a variety of cognitive domains. Recent studies in sentence comprehension have also reported alpha and/or beta power decreases preceding contextually predictable words, albeit with remarkable spatiotemporal variability across reports. To contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, and the sources of variability, the present study explored to what extent these prediction-related alpha and beta power decreases might be common across different modalities of comprehension. To address this, we re-analysed the data of two EEG experiments that employed the same materials in written and in spoken comprehension. Sentence contexts were weakly or strongly constraining about a sentence-final word, which was presented after a 1 s delay, either matching or mismatching the expectation. In written comprehension, alpha power (8–12 Hz) decreased before final words appearing in strongly (relative to weakly) constraining contexts, in line with previous reports. Furthermore, a similar oscillatory phenomenon was evidenced in spoken comprehension, although with relevant spatiotemporal differences. Altogether, the findings agree with the involvement of both modality-specific and general-domain mechanisms in the elicitation of prediction-related alpha power decreases in sentence comprehension. Specifically, we propose that this phenomenon might partly reflect richer and more precise information representation when linguistic contexts afford prediction.pre-doctoral grant (FPU "Ayudas para la Formacion de Profesorado Universitario") of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport FPU15/0555

Occasional reinforced extinction as a method for relapse prevention: a critical review and future directions.

It is widely known that fear extinction is more vulnerable than the original fear memory, as relapse phenomena have systematically shown in the literature with different species and procedures. One strategy potentially useful to mitigate relapse is the occasional reinforced extinction treatment. In contrast to a standard procedure, this strategy consists of the inclusion of a gradual and sparse number of CS-US pairings within the standard extinction treatment, which may potentiate the effects of the latter. Although it might be a potentially useful technique, the current evidence assessing its effectiveness does not appear to be consistent. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the available literature, highlighting differences in the relapse phenomena being studied, variables of interest and specific effects obtained. The observed methodological variability makes it difficult to draw a robust conclusion of the effectiveness of an occasional reinforced intervention to reduce different forms of relapse as the strategy has not consistently proved a general advantage over standard extinction.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A systematic review of occasional reinforced extinction as a method for relapse prevention.

Introduction Fear extinction is more vulnerable than the original fear memory, as relapse phenomena have systematically shown in the literature with different species and procedures. One strategy potentially useful to mitigate relapse is the occasional reinforced extinction (ORE) treatment. In contrast to a standard procedure, this strategy consists of the inclusion of a gradual and sparse number of CS-US pairings within the extinction treatment. Method Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the available literature on ORE. We conducted the search using three databases (Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycInfo) in July 2022, with an additional citation search. We collected data on different variables of interest, like the relapse phenomena being studied, the outcome measures, or the specific effects obtained. Results A total of 350 studies were identified from the main database search, including 16 in the review. Seventeen additional studies from the citation search were also included. The final sample of 33 reports consisted of 15 empirical and 18 theoretical works. The observed methodological variability makes it difficult to draw a robust conclusion of the effectiveness of ORE to reduce different forms of relapse as the strategy has not consistently proved a general advantage over standard extinction. Conclusion The current evidence assessing the effectiveness of ORE does not appear to be consistent, although there are plenty theoretical studies recommending and discussing the potential effectiveness of such technique. Moreover, the lack of clear laboratory evidence seriously call into question how general the potential benefits of its use in clinical settings would be.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Late-onset thymidine kinase 2 deficiency: a review of 18 cases

Background: TK2 gene encodes for mitochondrial thymidine kinase, which phosphorylates the pyrimidine nucleosides thymidine and deoxycytidine. Recessive mutations in the TK2 gene are responsible for the ‘myopathic form’ of the mitochondrial depletion/multiple deletions syndrome, with a wide spectrum of severity. Methods: We describe 18 patients with mitochondrial myopathy due to mutations in the TK2 gene with absence of clinical symptoms until the age of 12. Results: The mean age of onset was 31 years. The first symptom was muscle limb weakness in 10/18, eyelid ptosis in 6/18, and respiratory insufficiency in 2/18. All patients developed variable muscle weakness during the evolution of the disease. Half of patients presented difficulty in swallowing. All patients showed evidence of respiratory muscle weakness, with need for non-invasive Mechanical Ventilation in 12/18. Four patients had deceased, all of them due to respiratory insufficiency. We identified common radiological features in muscle magnetic resonance, where the most severely affected muscles were the gluteus maximus, semitendinosus and sartorius. On muscle biopsies typical signs of mitochondrial dysfunction were associated with dystrophic changes. All mutations identified were previously reported, being the most frequent the in-frame deletion p.Lys202del. All cases showed multiple mtDNA deletions but mtDNA depletion was present only in two patients. Conclusions: The late-onset is the less frequent form of presentation of the TK2 deficiency and its natural history is not well known. Patients with late onset TK2 deficiency have a consistent and recognizable clinical phenotype and a poor prognosis, due to the high risk of early and progressive respiratory insufficiency

Previously acquired cue–outcome structural knowledge guides new learning: Evidence from the retroactive-interference-between-cues effect

The effect of retroactive interference between cues predicting the same outcome (RIBC) occurs when the behavioral expression of a cue-outcome association (e.g., A→O1) is reduced due to the later acquisition of an association between a different cue and the same outcome (e.g., B→O1). In the present experimental series, we show that this effect can be modulated by knowledge concerning the structure of these cue-outcome relationships. In Experiments 1A and 1B, a pretraining phase was included to promote the expectation of either a one-to-one (OtO) or a many-to-one (MtO) cue-outcome structure during the subsequent RIBC training phases. We hypothesized that the adoption of an OtO expectation would make participants infer that the previously learned A→O1 relationship would not hold any longer after the exposure to B→O1 trials. Alternatively, the adoption of an MtO expectation would prevent participants from making such an inference. Experiment 1B included an additional condition without pretraining, to assess whether the OtO structure was expected by default. Experiment 2 included control conditions to assess the RIBC effect and induced the expectation of an OtO or MtO structure without the addition of a pretraining phase. Overall, the results suggest that participants effectively induced structural expectations regarding the cue-outcome contingencies. In turn, these expectations may have potentiated (OtO expectation) or alleviated (MtO expectation) the RIBC effect, depending on how well these expectations could accommodate the target A→O1 test association. This pattern of results poses difficulties for current explanations of the RIBC effect, since these explanations do not consider the incidence of cue-outcome structural expectations

Percepción de la contingencia en ratas: modulación fechneriana y metodología de la detección de señales

According to most conditioning theories, inhibitory learning will occurs if the probability of the unconditioned stimulus (US) in the presence of the conditioned stimulus (CS) or p1 is lower than the probability of the US in the absence of the CS or p2. This paper evaluates if the difference between p1 and p2 required to produce inhibitory conditioning is the same independently of the specific value of those two probabilities. Using an appetitive procedure of Pavlovian conditioning with rats, two extreme values of p2 (low and high) were experimentally compared suggesting that the difference between p1 and p2 required to produce inhibitory conditioning varies with the different value of p1 in a logarithmic fashion, in the same way as many sensory modalities. Also, the improvement of ROC curves over standard learning measures and the utility of Signal Detection Theory are discussed.De acuerdo con las principales teorías del condicionamiento, el aprendizaje inhibitorio ocurre cuando la probabilidad del estímulo incondicionado (EI) en presencia del estímulo condicionado (EC) o p1 es menor que la probabilidad del EI en ausencia del EC o p2. Este artículo evalúa si la diferencia entre p1 y p2 que se requiere para producir condicionamiento inhibitorio es la misma independientemente del valor específico de p1. Empleando un procedimiento apetitivo de condicionamiento Pavloviano con ratas se comparan experimentalmente dos valores extremos de p1 (baja y alta) sugiriendo que la diferencia entre p1 y p2 necesaria para producir condicionamiento inhibitorio varía con los diferentes valores de p1 de manera logarítmica, al igual que muchas modalidades sensoriales. Además se ofrece un tratamiento de los datos basado en los de la Teoría de la Detección de Señales empleando curvas COR y se discute su utilidad

Differences between individualist and collectivist cultures in emotional facebook usage: Relationship with empathy, self-esteem, and narcissism

Resumen tomado de la publicaciónDiferencias entre culturas individualistas y colectivas en el uso emocional de Facebook: relación con la empatía, la autoestima y el narcisismo. Antecedentes: los adolescentes son el grupo de población que más usan las redes sociales de forma emocional para expresar sus emociones y para empatizar con las emociones de otros. Mientras que factores de personalidad como empatía, autoestima y narcisismo parecen desempeñar un papel importante en este uso, la contribución de las variables culturales no ha sido examinada. El objetivo de este estudio es examinar variaciones interculturales en el uso de Facebook, y su relación con la empatía, autoestima y narcisismo. Método: usando una muestra de 479 adolescentes españoles (220 mujeres) y 405 adolescentes tailandeses (224 mujeres), se aplicó el Cuestionario de Uso de Facebook y se midieron los rasgos de empatía, autoestima y narcisismo. Resultados: los resultados sugieren variaciones entre las muestras españolas y tailandesas a nivel intra e intercultural. La muestra tailandesa puntuó más alto en Empatía Afectiva, pero más bajo en Empatía Cognitiva, y usó más Facebook expresando emociones y empatía. También se obtuvieron resultados relacionados con la interacción entre sexo y país. Conclusiones: se discuten estos resultados en relación con los criterios de Hofstede acerca de las diferencias entre las sociedades occidentales y orientales. Se destaca la necesidad de estudios longitudinales.Universidad de Oviedo. Biblioteca de Psicología; Plaza Feijoo, s/n.; 33003 Oviedo; Tel. +34985104146; Fax +34985104126; [email protected]